Monday, November 21, 2011

The recall petition drive to oust Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker collected over 100,000 signatures in its first four days. They need to reach roughly seven times that number in the next two months.

John Nichols observes that the Governor's desperation and that of his monied-backers is already getting ugly:

"The governor and his allies have not missed any openings to try to block the recall. The Koch brothers are already paying for pro-Walker television ads put together by their Americans for Prosperity group, and the governor’s campaign is spending heavily on its own ads—$300,000 since last Monday. (There are estimates that spending on Walker’s behalf will exceed $50 million.) Republican legislators have moved to give the governor veto power over election rules. And the Republican Party of Wisconsin has organized a campaign to intimidate recall petitioners with a website that urges party minions to "monitor" and challenge nurses, teachers and small-business owners who seek signatures. In some cases, Walker backers have grabbed petitions and ripped them up.

But there was no evidence Saturday or Sunday that any of the governor’s attempt’s to protect his political career were working."

A few days earlier, Nichols reminded readers "...Walker was not always opposed to recall elections, and he did not always want to control and constrain them. Walker was elected Milwaukee County Executive in a 2002 recall election. In 2010, when he was running for governor, he hailed the process as democracy in action."EMPHASES OURS

"You know the folks that were angry about this started a recall and they were told they needed to collect 73,000 signatures in sixty days," said Walker. "Well, not hundreds, not thousands, but tens of thousands of ordinary people did an extraordinary thing. They stood up and took their government back."